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Alstep
02-06-2023, 02:58 PM
I attended the Cabin Fever Expo a few weeks ago, a huge show dedicated to all kinds of model engineering projects.

A vendor there was demonstrating & selling a unique oxyacetylene torch. Welded up thin aluminum cans and cut 1/2" steel. I could never do what he did with my Victor torch. The cuts were clean and no slag. Not cheep, but looked like a very handy setup. Considering getting one.

Anybody here have any experience with it?

Here's their website; https://detroittorch.com/

DougGuy
02-06-2023, 03:14 PM
$649 for the torch kit really isn't bad at all for what I saw it doing. You would need regulators and hose, and of course filler metals and flux.

I have been a welder 50+yrs owned many torches and tips, still own and use several of them, as good with a torch as I am, that saw tooth cut he made with virtually zero slag got my attention. That exact cut in 3/8" or 1/2" plate whatever it was he was cutting is easy enough with a fine cutting tip for a PRO, and I mean someone who is really "gifted" with a torch, but for a novice to do that? Yeah.. I see!!

And that metal was already red hot, and a narrow cut less than 1/2" away from what he was cutting would be GUARANTEED to slag up and weld back together to be beaten apart with a chipping hammer and then have to be ground to clean it up. Very impressed.

abunaitoo
02-06-2023, 03:24 PM
That torch has been around forever under different names.
Dillion, Henrob come to mind.
It was always kind of expensive.
Always wanted to try one, but never had the chance.

elmacgyver0
02-06-2023, 04:08 PM
If I didn't already have all kinds of welding stuff, I would be all over it.

abunaitoo
02-07-2023, 01:00 AM
They do come up on evilbay, under the different brands names.

waksupi
02-07-2023, 11:25 AM
I attended the Cabin Fever Expo a few weeks ago, a huge show dedicated to all kinds of model engineering projects.

A vendor there was demonstrating & selling a unique oxyacetylene torch. Welded up thin aluminum cans and cut 1/2" steel. I could never do what he did with my Victor torch. The cuts were clean and no slag. Not cheep, but looked like a very handy setup. Considering getting one.

Anybody here have any experience with it?

Here's their website; https://detroittorch.com/

Cutting clean with no slag is done with a good clean tip, angle, and how you move the flame. I was taught to do it well enough by an old timer, that he required students to cut a set of wrenches with the torch, to proper dimension and no slag or rough cutting.

Snakeoil
02-07-2023, 11:35 AM
I go on FB (under duress) only because of group pages like the Lyman/Unertl page since there is no info or sharing forums on those scopes to be found elsewhere. For quite a while, a video add would pop up showing one of those torches. I'd never seen one before. Looked very interesting. But, I tend to view most if not all FB ads as clickbait and avoid them. Suspect the one in the FB ad is made in China by prisoners.

john.k
02-07-2023, 12:48 PM
welding/cutting with my hand that close to the heat ......no way .....which was always the major fail with these things .........if Im cutting I d rather have a 'gas-axe' with 3ft long handle ............im always suspicious of demonstrations welding thin aluminium......generally a cheat using a low melt solder.

ebb
02-08-2023, 07:06 PM
The best welder I know bought one and said he never could get it to work. I think that is one of those tools that "works on TV but not when you get it home."